1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to roller cotton gins. Builders of roller cotton gins have ordinary skill in this art.
2. Description of the Related Art
As clearly set out in my prior three patents, U.S. Pat. No. 3,251,094; U.S. Pat. No. 4,094,043; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,153,976, cotton gins are of two categories: saw gins and roller gins. Normally, fuzzy seed, or upland, or short staple cotton is gained by a saw gin. Long staple cotton sometimes called black seed, sea island, or Egyptian cotton, is ginned with roller gins. Normally, the cotton fibers are attached to the seed of sea island cotton much more loosely than are the seed of upland cotton.
Cotton is produced in bolls.
Each boll will have from about three to seven locks of cotton. These locks or segments are naturally produced with a fibrous membrane between them. When the cotton is removed from the burr or boll, it will be removed by locks. A lock of seed cotton will have about six to nine single seed per lock. Each of the seed within a lock of cotton will be with a single seed lock, which is one seed with the lint attached to it. I.e., each strand or filament or fiber of lint will be attached to only one seed. Therefore, it might be seen that a lock of seed cotton is made up of single seed locks, each seed lock being the seed with the lint attached on it.
Under present practice, the gin roller or the main roller of a roller gin is fed by a feeder which cleans the seed cotton. By the term seed cotton, it is meant the cotton with both lint and seed in it. The seed cotton is not only cleaned, but it is divided into individual locks. These locks are then dropped from a pan, tray, apron, or plate onto the gin roller. Then, the seed and lint are separated thereon, as is known to the art, particularly referring to my prior three patents. A typical gin roller will be 15" in diameter and 40" in length and be rotated at 120 revolutions per minute. Normally, the ginning capacity of such a roller will be less than two bales to the hour. At two bales per hour, about 3,000 lbs. of seed cotton would be fed to the gin roller in an hour, about 1,000 pounds of lint will be produced from the gin roller, and about 2,000 pounds of seed.
On most sea island cotton, there about 2,000 seed per pound of seed cotton. Stated otherwise, there are about 3,000,000 seeds per bale, i.e., at two bales per hour, the gin is fed by placing locks of seed cotton with about about 6,000,000 seed per hour upon the gin roller. Calculation will show that the seed will be applied to the gin roller at about one seed for every two square inches of the gin roller, or about 72 seed per square foot.
The problem exists that the seed are not applied evenly to the surface but are applied by locks of cotton, each lock carrying several seed.
It is recognized in the art that in operation, if ever the cotton lumps or balls up at the ginning point, it causes a problem. This is outlined in the prior art.
Also, it is recognized that if the cotton could be fed evenly to the gin rollers that the ginning blade on the roller would be able to accommodate seed cotton at a rate resulting in more than one seed for every two square inches of gin roller.
BROOKS, U.S. Pat. Number 3,769,658 recognized the advantage of feeding cotton to a roller at a faster rate than what had been done before. The patent discloses feeding the cotton into a series of rollers which condensed the cotton. I.e., they are first fed at a greater rate of linear travel than the rate they are fed to the gin roller.